Following the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in February, a group of students led by teenager David Hogg and others claimed that if representatives wouldn't advance more gun confiscation "laws," they would "vote them out." Well, it seems that the gun issue is just not going to be a big issue in the 2018 elections, as it shouldn't be.
According to The Washington Post who is trying to advance the same propaganda as Hogg and company, "Almost everyone you talk to on the Democratic side of politics says there’s something different about the gun debate this election season."
However, that is not what American voters are actually contemplating.
A recent survey of 1,011 adults was conducted April 10th through April 13th, 2018 by The Marist Poll sponsored in collaboration with NPR and PBS NewsHour.
So, the results are not coming from a "right wing" group here.
NPR reported on the results:
The gun issue is beginning to wane in voters' minds ahead of the November midterm elections, a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll finds.While almost half of all registered voters (46 percent) say a candidate's position on gun policy will be a major factor in deciding whom to vote for, that number is down 13 points from February, when a shooting at a Florida high school sparked outrage.
So if Democrats are counting on guns to motivate their voters to get to the polls, maybe they shouldn't. There has been a major drop among Democrats on the issue — down 21 points over the past two months. In February, 74 percent of Democrats called it a major factor in deciding their vote in February, but now just 53 percent say so.
The issue has faded among independents, too, dropping from 54 percent to 42 percent who said gun policy would have a major impact on their vote.
Unless there is another false flag attack mass shooting towards election time, this will probably be an afterthought.
Already, Hogg, though he has a book coming out with his sister and is calling for more boycotts, which have blown up in his face, is becoming more and more irrelevant. But he's trying to hold onto the limelight at the expense of those killed at his high school for as long as he can, or as long as his handlers will allow him to do so.
Even though the issue is not front and center currently, mainly because Americans can't seem to deal with one particular item at a time because of the influx of information into the political sphere, that doesn't mean that many of the Communist mindset when it comes to arms are somehow changing their minds on infringing on the rights of law-abiding citizens.
"This finding raises a cautionary flag for voters who want gun policy to be front and center this election cycle," said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. "Still, a majority of Americans, overall, want stricter gun control, support efforts to curb gun violence over gun rights, unlike in the aftermath of Sandy Hook, and believe the Parkland students have already had an impact on the gun reform debate."
Additionally, pro-Second Amendment representatives claim that the entire bruhaha has helped to strengthen their resolve. Gunpowder Magazine reports:
Colorado Republican Senator Tim Neville says the anti-gun rhetoric has given his party the chance to double-down on its pro-Second Amendment stance and has allowed the GOP the chance to reinforce its message to liberty-loving supporters which side is dedicated to upholding their Constitutional rights.“The laws being passed restricting magazine sizes and outlawing guns based on their looks go after the wrong people,” Neville told Gunpowder Magazine. “The right to keep and bear arms is clear. This [political climate] has given us a chance to clarify the issues of our party, one that stands for constitutional rights and individual rights. The gun control narrative is one that urges people to step on our constitutional rights. Instead, we should be focusing on school safety and deterring acts of violence.”
...
Lesley Hollywood co-founded “Rally for Our Rights,” a pro-gun group that held a peaceful, open-carry demonstration in Loveland, Colorado following the March for Our Lives protests.
“With the overarching anti-gun sentiment spreading across this country, I felt it was necessary to show a differing point of view,” Hollywood told Gunpowder Magazine.
The anti-gun messaging has also sewed divisions within the Democratic Party. John Rodgers, a Democratic state senator from Vermont, says he grew-up in rural communities and learned how to shoot guns as a way of life. New democrats have been slowly pushing the party farther to the left over the past 20 years, Rodgers says.
“Law-abiding citizens are being vilified for owning certain firearms and magazines,” Rodgers told Gunpowder Magazine. “This issue has been so divisive. Even more so because the mainstream media has attached itself to the gun control issue also.”
Here's the thing, it doesn't matter if every single American changed their mind on the issue, we are talking about a God-given right, not a privilege. The Second Amendment is part of the Bill of Rights, not the bill of government privileges. Those rights are to be protected, just like free speech, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble and other rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights, along with others that are not enumerated, which are bound up in the Tenth Amendment.
So, while many will continue to cry for more gun confiscation "laws," which are pretended legislation, the reality is that they are anti-American in doing so and this election season, barring another mass shooting, in which those who are supposed to be dealing with criminals drop the ball as they so often do, we'll not be hearing the gun issue to be that big a deal.
However, I suggest we remain vigilant. Already we've seen the current administration push for bans on bump stocks and raising the age to purchase a rifle. Those are clear attacks on the Second Amendment, but I doubt they will make it an issue when it comes to November.
Meanwhile, Americans are loading up on guns and ammo, showing that they truly believe in their God-given rights.